Transportation in Calgary
The city of Calgary, Alberta, has a large transportation network that encompasses a variety of road, rail, air, public transit, and pedestrian infrastructure. Calgary is also a major Canadian transportation centre and a central cargo hub for freight in and out of north-western North America. The city sits at the junction between the "Canamex" highway system and the Trans-Canada Highway.
As a prairie city, Calgary has never had any major impediments to growth. As such, it has developed into a city with an area of about and a metropolitan area of nearly. This outward growth has encouraged the development of an extensive personal vehicle-oriented road network complete with a freeway system.
Since 1981, when the city officially opened the first leg of its CTrain rapid transit system, emphasis on public transportation as an alternative to cars has become important. The CTrain has the second-highest light rail system ridership of any North American city, only slightly behind Guadalajara, Mexico. Cycling is also seen as a major alternative to driving in Calgary. In recent years, increases in the population and density of inner-city neighbourhoods such as the Beltline have favoured greater pedestrianism as well.
Public transportation
Calgary's primary public transportation system is operated by Calgary Transit. The service operates only within Calgary city limits and does not provide transportation to and from other communities within the Calgary Region. Some communities within Calgary's metropolitan area provide their own transit services. Calgary Transit is owned and managed by the City of Calgary.Light rail
The light rail transit system, known as the CTrain, consists of of track connecting 45 stations and was the second of such systems built in North America. Until very recently, Calgary and Edmonton were the only two North American cities with populations under two million to operate rapid mass transit systems. As of August 2024, there are two lines in operation, with a third line under construction. All the lines pass through downtown near their midpoints. The routes are as follows:Travel between stations along 7th Avenue in downtown is free-of-charge. Unique to the CTrain system, its power is 100% wind generated and completely free of emissions. The extension of the Blue Line into west Calgary was completed in 2012 and is the most recent section of the network to open.
Buses
Calgary Transit also has a system of buses, with routes stretching over the whole city. It has won several awards for its efficiency and its environmental responsibility. It consists of 4 major "MAX" express bus routes and over 160 shorter community bus routes that connect to C-train Stations and MAX lines with the whole system stretching over.Roads and streets
Calgary has an extensive street network. Smaller roads are supplemented with a number of major arteries, expressways and freeways. The majority of main expressways and freeways are named Trails, as well as some of the main arterial roads that do not fit in the numbering grid. The use of the term Trails to describe major highways resulted from the development of early pioneer trails into the highways themselves. The original trails were named after the settlements to which they lead; for example, Edmonton Trail, Macleod Trail, and Banff Trail. More recently developed local expressways were given the Trail moniker and have been named after important people from Calgary's history, native groups or again after their destination. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule in which a few older residential streets have also been labeled "Trail", such as Morley Trail.Plans originating in the 1950s and 1960s for a considerably more extensive freeway system including elevated freeways were largely abandoned in favour of a growing trend to reduce the emphasis on roads and increase the amount of public transportation infrastructure in North American cities.
Provincial Freeways
Two freeways within the City of Calgary are wholly controlled and maintained by Alberta's Ministry of Transportation with the city sometimes offering joint funding to construct interchanges with municipal roads. They have the highest construction standards, speed limits of 100 km/h and provided key connections to the rest of the provincial highway network.Deerfoot Trail. A 46.4 km major north-to-south freeway in eastern Calgary that forms a key segment of Highway 2, the provinces main north-to-south highway and a key part of the CANAMEX Corridor. The first section of the roadway opened in 1971 originally named as Blackfoot Trail, later renamed to its current name to honour Deerfoot Bad-Meat in 1974 with the south terminus at 16th Avenue NE, later extended to 17th Avenue SE, then getting extended again to Glenmore Trail, and finally majorly extended to Stoney Trail but the whole route was not rendered a freeway until the last signal light was removed in 2005, officially making traffic in the major road entirely free-flowing, but there was more construction to come from the mid-2000s to today.
Stoney Trail. A 101 km long free flowing ring road that comply incircles Calgary and serves as a bypass for traffic wishing to avoid the core areas of the city. Provides links to many important provincial highways such as Highway 1, Highway 1A, Highway 8 and Alberta Highway 22X most of which lack high speed connections through the city as well as serving as bypass to Deerfoot Trail. The highway opened in phases from late 1995 to December 2023/January 2024.
Skeletal Roads
Skeletal Roads is the highest designation of road made by the City of Calgary with no clarification being made between controlled access freeways and expressways with spaced out signal lights. Speed-limits range from 90 to 70 km/h on these roadways with freeway conversions being planned on all of the routes.Significant sections of controlled access freeways are
Crowchild Trail, the main north–south route in Western Calgary, running between the city limits and Glenmore Trail. Two freeway sections in south and north separated by a section with 4 closely spaced signal lights just north of the Bow River. These signal lights are eventually planned to be replaced with interchanges to render the whole route a freeway.
Macleod Trail, north–south route in south Calgary. The skeletal road designated section between 14th Street and Stoney Trail is a full freeway, the rest of the route is highly signalized arterial road.
Sarcee Trail, North-South Route in West Calgary. Contains three interchanges interspaced with two signal lights with plans for interchanges at all junctions.
Glenmore Trail, the only east–west skeletal road that runs the whole width of Calgary. Runs south of downtown between Stoney Trail in West Calgary and Stoney Trail in East Calgary. While fully a freeway in west of the Deerfoot, the eastern section still contains 3 spaced out signal lights, but full freeway conversion is eventually planned.
Memorial Drive, serves as a spur into Downtown Calgary from Deerfoot Trail. Only the section between the Reconciliation Bridge and Deerfoot Trail is designated as a skeletal road with the rest of Memorial Drive being a slower moving Parkway.
16 Avenue N. Carries the Highway 1 designation. Only the short section between Stoney Trail West and Sarcee Trail and the section east of the Deerfoot are considered Skeletal Roads and contain interchanges. The heavily signalized section of 16th Avenue through North-Central Calgary is designated as an Urban Boulevard and is never intended to be upgraded to a freeway.
Airport Trail, east-west Road in Northeast Calgary, freeway section serves as spur route from Deerfoot connecting to the Calgary International Airport, the whole route is eventually intended to be upgraded to a freeway.
Bow Trail is a unique case because it contains a significant freeway section between Crowchild Trail and Downtown Calgary but is only designated as an arterial road which is strictly non limited access in definition. This is because the city intends for eventually freeway removal on this section of Bow Trail as part of the West Village Redevelopment Plan.
Skeletal roads that do not included significant sections of freeway included Shaganappi Trail, Barlow Trail, Anderson Road, Beddington Trail, 14 Street W, John Laurie/McKnight Boulevard and Peigan Trail.
Municipal Roads
Excluding the Provincial Freeways and the Skeletal Roads other roads defined in the Calgary Transpiration Plan include.Arterial Roads, major signalized roads with 4 to 8 lanes, the most common major road in the city. New arterial roads always include sidewalks on both sides of the road, left turning bays, green buffers, bus bays and Bike lanes or Shared-use paths However older Arterial roads often lack many of these features which are only slowly being implemented when major road upgrades occur. Examples include Country Hills Boulevard, 17 Avenue and 69th Street W.
Parkways, midsized 2 to 4 lane roads that are often near natural areas and seek to encourage green, high quality natural design such as large green buffers and are often closed to Truck Traffic. They also seek to have active transportation route near them and aim to slow car traffic. Examples include Memorial Drive west of Center Street, Canyon Meadows Drive and Elbow Drive.
Urban Boulevards, major heavily signalized 2 to 6 lane roads that are similar to Arterial Roads but instead contain more signal lights, wider sidewalks and better quality urban design such as fancy light posts and public art. Unlike Arterial Roads they also often allow on street parking. The city seeks to line these category of roads with high density development, and small businesses and make them major transit routes such as for the MAX transit system. Examples include the central portion of 16 Avenue N, of Centre Street and Macleod Trail near downtown.
Neighbourhood Collectors are small 2 lane roads that often featuring bike lanes and on street parking. Their purpose is to connect the major city roads to neighbourhoods and homes rather than facilitate longer distance travel. Unlike the roads mentioned above these small roads are built and planned by the developers rather than the city although the later is responsible for long term maintenance.